


Beyond The Shore

by tigerniall64



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: M/M, Narry - Freeform, fisherman!niall, mermaid!au, merman!harry
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-03-25
Updated: 2016-03-25
Packaged: 2018-05-28 22:23:30
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,585
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6347899
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tigerniall64/pseuds/tigerniall64
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Niall Horan's just an everyday fisherman whose life gets changed when a mysterious thing gets caught in his net one day. His life is ever altered afterward. </p><p>or the one where Niall accidentally catches a merman and that merman just happens to be rebellious merman, Harry Styles.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Beyond The Shore

**Author's Note:**

> Biiiiiiiig shoutout to my wonderful Ciaran, without your help and constant urging, this would never have gotten written. So big love and thanks from me to you !
> 
> Title taken from the song: Beyond the Sea by Bobby Darin

The early morning light crept through the porthole windows, blinding Niall as he stared up at the ceiling and debated getting out of bed. He could hear his phone buzzing in the other room and sighed, as he knew that he’d have to get up to grab it eventually. Stumbling out of bed, Niall made his way over to his phone and glanced at his texts:

_Niall get up._

_Niall we have to be up at the docks early today_

_NIALLL!!!!!!!!!!!!!_

_NIALL JAMES HORAN!!! GET UP!_

All four text were from Greg, his brother and coincidentally, his fishing partner. Niall sighed, thumbed out a quick response to Greg and hopped in the shower to wake himself up. Why he thought that being a fisherman and not being a morning person was a good idea, he didn’t know. But he did know that he loved to fish and that he was damn good at it. After his shower, Niall got dressed into his fishing gear, grabbed a granola bar and headed out of his little rinky-dink houseboat and into the world. Well, as much of the world that the Dublin Port has to offer, at least.

He met Greg at the dock a few boats down from where his house is and smiled knowingly, “’Mornin, did you happen to text me earlier? Couldn’t tell…”

Greg rolled his eyes, “Yeah yeah, you joke now, but just imagine how horrible it would have been if you really were late today. We would have missed the primary time for all the good dogfish to be swimming by.”

Niall took a bite of his granola, “You bring up a good point, I guess, but four texts? Really? I think that may have been a bit much, don’t you?”

“Knowing your track record, no. Four seems a little weak if I’m being honest with you. Now come on, let’s get our nets dow—“ Greg’s phone started to ring. “Hello? Hey babe. What?! Are you sure? Oh no. No it’s fine, I’ll just have Niall do it. Don’t you worry about him, he can do just fine on his own for a little bit. I’ll be right there. Yeah, okay bye.”

Niall looked at his brother skeptically. Greg sighed and started to pack up his stuff, “Theo’s got the flu. Denise just got back from the doctors and she needs all the help she can get today. I gotta go help her out, but you can handle this. I know you can. And I’ll come check up on you later, if you want.”

“Greg, just go. I’ve got this, you know I do. Give Theo a kiss for me… Or wait. Don’t. I don’t need you getting the flu also.”

Greg smiled at his brother and ran off toward the parking lot at the end of the docks.

Niall waved his brother goodbye and finished off his granola bar; if he was going to do this all by himself, he was going to need all the energy he could get. He gathered up the nets and the baskets, all while trying to not stumble over the ropes as he got onto the family fishing boat. Once all the proper gear was on the boat, he drove it out to the middle of the harbor and then further out to sea. He wasn’t as confident with driving boats as Greg was, but he was capable enough to get to their usual anchoring point.

Niall got out from behind the wheel and lowered the nets deep into the water. Now came the long period of time of waiting. Niall hated the waiting, especially when he was alone. There was nothing to do this far out at sea. His phone didn’t get service or internet, he forgot his usual book because he was in a rush this morning, and he didn’t transfer his music from his computer to his phone yet. That’s a whole other story; Niall had dropped his previous phone over the edge last week, so he had to get an entirely new one. Therefore, no music to distract him from the endless and mindless task that is waiting for fish to be stupid enough to swim into his net.

An hour or so passed and all of a sudden the left side of the boat tipped downward slightly, waking Niall from his cat nap behind the wheel. He cautiously stood up and peered over the edge of the boat; there was a man in his net!

“What the fuck is that…?” Niall wondered as he pulled the net up and out of the water, but before he got it completely over board, he dropped the net in shock. That was no ordinary man. Feeling ridiculously childish, Niall shook his head, it couldn’t be… So, he pulled the net up again and instantly dropped it once he caught sight of the man again. It was! It was a mermaid!

Niall braced himself back against the right side of the boat. This was _not_ happening. Surely, this was all a dream, mermaids aren’t real; they are a thing of Disney movies and Hans Christian Anderson tales and Greek myths. Not Dublin! Alas, Niall found himself once more on the left side of his boat, hoisting the net overboard, and he was determined to get it on to the deck this time. As he lifted it up, he saw the man again. But this time, as he was about to drop it back into the water, the man spoke.

“WAIT!”

Niall was dumbfounded. Not only was there a man with a fish’s tale, but he talked? “What?”

“I’ve gathered that you’re a bit surprised and I get that you may be freaking out right now, but please, stop dropping me back into the ocean, I’ve got a massive headache.”

Niall nodded numbly and pulled the net up and over the edge, letting it fall onto the deck and pool around the man… err… mermaid. Merman? Well, anyway, the mer _man_ smiled a little, readjusted his body so that he was more comfortable and then looked at Niall. “What? You’ve never seen a merman before?”

Niall shook his head, he still couldn’t bring himself to speak.

“Okay… Well, I just came by your boat, because one of the fish that was caught in your net was one of my pets, and I didn’t want him to be eaten up by some lousy Irishmen. No offence. And then, one thing led to another and I let all the other fish go too, but in the process of doing all that… I ended up caught. Talk about irony, huh?” The merman waited for a response, but realized quickly that he wasn’t going to get one. “So… Crazy that merpeople exist, right?” Still nothing, he sighed, “Okay, what gives. Just talk to me! You seem like a nice guy, killing my fellow fish aside… What’s your name? Let’s start with that.”

“I’m Niall. You?”

“Wow, he speaks. Congratulations. I’m Harry, nice to meet you, Niall. Now that I know you can speak, do you have any questions for me? C’mon try me, I bet I can answer all of them. I’m kind of an expert in all things merman.”

“Umm… okay. How long have merpeople existed?”

Harry cracked his knuckles, “That’s an easy one, mate, we’ve been around for just as long as humans have, they just don’t know about us.”

“Will I have to get my memory wiped because I know about merpeople now?” Niall started panicking, he didn’t want to forget about Harry. He didn’t want to forget about any of this. He’s always been fascinated with mythical creatures, so the fact that there was this merman right in front of him was blowing his mind.

The merman shook his head, “Nah, you’re fine. Just as long as you don’t go telling people about me. It’s gotta be our little secret, okay?”

Niall understood, he didn’t want to risk exposing merpeople to the world, “Okay. Can you talk to fish?”

“Not really… I know some mermaids that can, but they tend to be better at it than the mermen. My mum can.”

“Oh cool.” Niall realized that Harry sounded very British, and yet, he was found in the Irish sea. “How is it that you’re British?”

Harry sighed, “Country boundaries are a bit skewed under the sea. Where I live, just a little ways away under water, it’s still England, even though on land it’s Ireland.”

Niall stifled a laugh, “Oh, that’s interesting, never thought things were that different _under da sea_ ”

Harry looked at Niall quizzically, “Why are you laughing? And why did you say ‘under the sea’ like that?”

“I thought _I_ was the one who was supposed to be asking the questions here…” Niall could feel himself getting more and more comfortable around Harry, which is shocking, because he barely considered himself comfortable around most of his _human_ mates.

“C’mon Niall… I thought we had a real nice thing going here, don’t make me regret talking to you.”

Niall smiled shyly, “We do… It’s just. There’s this film about a mermaid princess. It’s stupid really. There’s a song in the film called ‘Under the Sea’ and this talking crab has an accent, so it sounds like ‘under DA sea’ and you said ‘under the sea,’ so it reminded me of the film.”

“Mermaid princess?”

Niall shrugged, “Told you it was stupid.”

“Wait… What’s a film?”

“You don’t know what a film is?” Niall sighed, “It’s this thing, well more of a projection of a story that… Basically, you take a common tale, like some folk lore and write it out into words. After that’s done, other people come along and… This is too hard to explain, you’d just have to see one for yourself.”

Harry smiled shyly, “Well, maybe you’ll have to show me one, some day.”

Niall nodded, almost too eagerly, “Yeah maybe, the first one’s gotta be ‘The Little Mermaid,’ I’m sure you’ll have plenty to say about it.”

“Sounds like a grand idea. So… have any more questions for me?”

Shaking his head, Niall sat down across from Harry, finally calmed down a bit. “Nah, I think I’ve got all my bases covered…” He thought for a moment and inched closer to Harry, “Well… I do have one more.”

“Shoot.”

“C-can I touch you?” Niall blushed, realizing how odd he sounded, “Not in a weird way! It’s just that, up until today I didn’t think merpeople existed and then here you are, _existing_. Sorry…”

Harry laughed and extended his arm, “You’re fine, mate, I get it. You’re not the first human I’ve met, I get the appeal of a ‘mythical’ creature.” Niall reached out and touched Harry’s arm. It was cooler than expected, but also kind of gave off a warm vibe. It wasn’t that much different from his own arm, other than the fact that it still felt wet from the sea.

“Wow,” Niall breathed, “That’s so cool.” He retracted his hand and stared at his fingers for a second, “You’re _so_ cool!”

Harry blushed and leaned back against the side of the boat, “I suppose I’m alright.”

Niall’s phone started to buzz and he scrambled up to answer it, “Hello? Hey Greg. Oh yeah, no it’s going just fine out here. Umm… How much I’ve caught today? Oh, plenty! Really, there’s absolutely nothing to worry about here. How’s Theo? Oh. Well, I hope he feels better. Oh really? Okay. Yeah that’s fine. Right, I’ll see you in a few days then. Bye!” Niall hung up and pocked his phone. “So that was my brother. We work together. We make a living out of, well… Fishing. His son got sick, so I was supposed to be out here on my own today, and I’ve spent the first half of it just chatting to you. Not that there’s anything wrong with that at all, it’s just that now I’m way behind.” Niall sighed. It was gonna be a long day.

“Oh. Well, I can leave. I think I should be heading out anyway, my friends will be wondering where I went off to, besides, I don’t think I can watch you kill my fellow fish…”

“Right yeah. Didn’t really think about that part. Sorry.”

“No, it’s fine. I get it, I just don’t particularly enjoy it.” Harry tried to hoist himself up over the edge and failed. “Okay, so this is embarrassing, do you think you could…” He gestured to going overboard.

“Oh yeah. For sure, one second.” Niall stood up and made his way over to Harry, “I think I’m just gonna lift you up and then place you down on the edge, that work?”

“I mean, it’s a tad emasculating, but if it’s the only way to get it done…”

Niall smiled, crouched down and picked Harry up fireman style, “See, this isn’t too bad, is it?”

Harry shook his head, too enamored to speak.

Placing him down gently, Niall took his hands away and stepped back almost _too_ quickly, “So… I guess I’ll see you around then?”

“Yeah. I hope so. This was really nice.”

“I’ll be around here fishing tomorrow, you know, if you want to stop by… My brother will still be at home with his son, so it’ll be safe.”

“Okay, sounds good. Maybe I’ll make an appearance. See you around Niall.”

“See you, Harry.”

Harry smiled and launched himself back into the water, flicking his tail back at Niall as he dove under the water into the depths of the ocean.

“Wow, what a day…” Niall sighed and got back to work with a warm smile blaring across his face.

After a long work day, Niall brought the boat back into the harbor, unloaded the fish, tied the boat up and headed to the end of the dock. He dropped off the fish from the day, collected the money and made his way back to his houseboat.

One long shower later, Niall was laying in bed and staring up at the ceiling and thinking about everything that happened that day. Merpeople are _real_. He met a merman. Not only a merman, but a gorgeous one. Harry was by far the most beautiful person that he has ever seen in his whole life. But there was one thing Niall couldn’t get out of his head… It was something Harry said on the boat earlier, _you’re not the first human I’ve met_. What did that mean? Niall was not usually the type to get jealous, but he just couldn’t help himself; he _was_ jealous!

With all that on his mind, Niall had a tough time falling asleep that night. He tossed and turned for what seemed like hours, but when he eventually did fall asleep… all he could think about was beautiful merman with long flowing curly brown hair.

 

 ••

 

Harry left his cave on the edge of the mer-village right around the same time as he did the previous day, just to be sure to get to Niall at around the same time. He couldn’t stop smiling as he swam past the familiar sights of the village that he grew up in; there were a lot of great memories surrounding him. Memories he hoped would never go away, even though he had kind of distanced himself from his old life. Harry tried his best to not let his parents get too him too often, but there were times when all the distrust and pain came crawling back.

Parents are supposed to support you in every way, whatever choices you made, they were supposed to be okay with you. That was not the case for Harry and his parents. They just couldn’t understand that Harry was young and wanted to see what was out there in the world above. Yes, he broke a rule. And yes, that rule just happened to be the primary rule of all mer-kind. But, could you blame him? If you teach a young merman about the dangers of the world above the waves throughout his whole life, he is going to want if not _need_ to go up there and explore it. So maybe he got a little carried away and spent more time above the water than below on the full moons, but that was the best time to be there! Merpeople could _walk_ _around_ , on feet! They could feel like real life humans! That was an offer no one could refuse and the second Harry realized that he changed on full moons, you could be sure that he was up there once a month.

And even though it got him in some serious trouble, Harry couldn’t resist it. There was still so much for him to learn about these fascinating creatures; like _films_ and exactly what they did that made Niall so happy.

 _Niall, crap!_ Harry had spent too much time, swimming around his old village that he almost forgot about meeting up with his mysterious human friend. He swam off in the direction of where Niall’s boat was the other day and was smiling constantly thinking of those ocean blue eyes and magnetic smile. As he closed into the area where the small fishing boat was the other day, he spotted a boat. _That was Niall’s boat!_ He came in much closer, almost close enough to touch it and then out of the blue a massive next trap came down around him fast and he couldn’t get out. _What was Niall playing at?_ As the net was lifted out of the water, Harry quickly realized that this was in fact, _not_ Niall’s boat.

“Well… what do we have here? Some stupid brat dressing up as a mermaid and messing around with our fishing? Well then, we’ll teach you then, mate. How about we treat you as a real fish and cut up your stupid fucking costume then? Sound good?”

He screamed for help. Shouting Niall’s name as loud as he could, hoping that he was nearby to help him. So this is what his parents and the mer-council had warned him about, Harry should never have been so stupid.

Just as the man turned back towards Harry with a pair of knives in his hands, Harry heard the big rumble of a boat and there he was! Niall. Shouting even louder now, Harry tried to get Niall’s attention, hoping that this boy was trustworthy.

Niall heard Harry’s cries for help and brought his boat right up next to the other fishing boat, “Damian! Hey there, that’s my mate, Harry. He didn’t mean any harm, just trying to find my boat. No worries here. How ‘bout you let him go, back into the water and I’ll make sure that he doesn’t mess around with you or your fish ever again. Good?”

The other fisherman, Damian Harry assumed, grunted, “Yeah alright, fine. But you listen here, Harry,” He brandished the knife at Harry’s face, “You ever touch my boat again, I won’t let you off so easy. You’re just luck that you’re mates with Bobby’s boy; otherwise you’d be screwed and your costume would be destroyed.” With that threat he threw Harry overboard and drove his boat off towards the harbor.

Harry shook in the water and Niall brought his boat over to where Harry was frozen in the water. “Hey, Harry, you okay?”

Harry shook his head, he was completely messed up. He never wanted to come to this area ever again.

“Hey c’mon,” Niall reached out his hands and pulled Harry up onto his boat. They both leaned against the side of the boat and Niall put his arm around Harry. “It’s gonna be fine, okay? Those guys are dicks. They always come to where I fish right after I’m done and try to get the leftovers, they not great at their jobs to be honest with you…” Niall smiled, trying to make a joke out of the situation, but that clearly hadn’t worked. “Why were you so late by the way? I waited around for a while too…”

Harry looked at Niall, “I-I got distracted… It’s a long story.” He didn’t want to admit to all the thinking he had been doing, besides Niall wouldn’t of understood.

“No worries, mate. Hey, how ‘bout I bring us back to the harbor and then you can come to my house and chill? I bought that film I told you about yesterday. Could be fun to watch it with you?”

Harry furrowed his brows, “What do you mean your house?”

“Oh sorry,” Niall blushed like a bright red rose, “A house is a place that humans li—“

Harry scoffed, “I know what a house is Niall, but usually houses aren’t connected to the water and in case you hadn’t noticed… I can’t really get around too well on land.”

Niall smiled, “Ah yes, but you see, my dear. That’s the beauty of a houseboat, isn’t it?”

Harry smiled, “That’s perfect, let’s go!”

With that, Niall got up and brought the boat back into the harbor, it was only a few minutes away, so it didn’t take too long to get back and get the boat firmly secured on the docks. Lowering Harry into the water carefully, Niall pointed out which boat he lived in and Harry swam off in that direction. Harry was nervous about being in the harbor, he didn’t usually come this close to the other boats, but for Niall, he’d try anything. Besides, he wanted to see where Niall lived; the thought of a boat that’s also a house fascinated him. The fact that tonight’s also a full moon is just a bonus in Harry’s mind…

Harry was waiting by Niall’s boat when the other boy finally arrived. “Hey, what took you so long?”

Niall rolled his eyes, “Oh _sooorry_ , not all of us are super fast swimmer-freaks, you know…”

“Freaks? I’m hurt, I truly am.” Harry feigned sarcasm, “How dare you? I think I may just leave, nice knowing you,” Harry gasped and started to pretend go underwater, but Niall grabbed at his hand.

“Hey wait, I was kidding. Jeez, drama queen. C’mon then.” The blonde boy pulled Harry up onto the boat and then proceeded to collapse onto the deck. “I’m exhausted. I could just lie out here all night.”

Harry shifted himself closer to Niall, “Nah, I wanna see this film thing. Sounds interesting. No other human has ever shown me a _film_ before…” Harry felt Niall bristle up a bit, that was weird, Niall seemed like such a laid back guy, “Hey, what’s wrong?”

Niall shrugged it off, “Nothing, don’t worry about it. So, should I go grab the film? I’m too tired to carry you inside, so it looks like we’re gonna be out here while we watch, that okay?”

Shaking his head, Harry smiled, “Don’t think that’ll be too much of an issue, Niall…”

“What do you mean?”

“Look up in the sky, don’t you see it?”

“See what?”

“The full moon! It’s gorgeous.” Harry realized just in the nick of time that he’d be rather exposed in a few moments, “Shit, hand me that towel, will you?”

Niall tossed Harry the beach towel, he had lying around and Harry quickly covered his waist just as his body got enveloped by a bright light. Niall scooted far away from Harry and shielded his eyes from the almost blinding light. “What the fuck’s going on?”

The bright light faded away and it revealed two long legs, “What? You didn’t know about full moons?”

“Y-you’re a… you’ve got… Holy shit, this must be some kind of dream…” Niall stood up and backed a bit away from the other boy.

Harry stood up slowly, gripping the side of the boat and readjusted the towel, trying to get used to legs again, “No dream, I promise… I didn’t realize that not all humans knew about the transforming on full moons. We’re kind of like werewolves in that sense. Does that make it any more palatable?”

Niall nodded, “I suppose so… D’you want some pants or something?”

“That’d be pretty good right about now, yeah. I’ll follow you in?” The other boy nodded.

Harry gripped the side of the boat and stood up shakily, and wiggled his legs a bit, trying to wake them up. Post transformation legs take a little while to get used to again. He followed Niall back into the house part of the house boat. The inside of the house was so cool. Harry had never seen anything like this before, it felt like a real human house, but it was smaller. He could tell that Niall was freaking out and he felt bad, that was the last thing that Harry had wanted.

Niall came back into the main area of the houseboat and handed Harry a pair of shorts without making eye contact. “Thanks,” putting the shorts on, Harry kept stealing glances at Niall.

“Alright, what’s up. I’m the same person, the same old Harry. I can get rid of the legs, if you’d like… If that’d make you feel more comfortable, I just figured that this way it’d be easier to enjoy the film…”

“I just don’t get it. How did you plan this?! It’s like you knew we’d become friends just when it happened to be conveniently that special day for you. I just… it’s like you’re using me to explore more of human stuff.” Niall turned away from Harry and crossed his arms.

“No! That’s not what happened at all! I swear. I completely forgot about the day, until I checked the sky last night. I just thought it could be nice to kind of be on the same level as you. It’s been nice in the past, to be able to sit and talk and not have to worry about being caught and just be able to relax, at least for one night…”

Niall turned back around to face Harry and he sighed, “It’s just that I was finally getting used to the fact that I knew a merman and then you go and change everything on me? It caught me by surprise, that’s all.” Harry nodded knowingly, “I guess it is kinda cool, that you can get legs though…”

Harry smiled, relieved that Niall was coming along, “I’m sorry about surprising you, I didn’t think it through, I--”

“No. You didn’t think it through, you’re right.” Niall starred down at the grown with a hurt expression scrawled across his face.

“C’mon Niall… I didn’t mean to freak you out or anything. Please don’t be upset. I get it, I fucked up a little. Let’s not this ruin the night? Let’s just watch this silly film?”

Shaking his head with mild annoyance, Niall rolled his eyes, “Yeah yeah, whatever. Come on, we’ll sit on the bed.” Niall set up a strange contraption that had a small screen type thing on it, where Harry assumed they would be watching the film. “Now, I know you know everything that has to do with merpeople and that you think you are some sort of expert. And I respect that. But I’m letting you know now that this film may not be a great depiction of your kind. Please try to have an open mind about it though, because the songs are amazing, okay?”

Harry nodded, ready for anything, “Sounds good to me.” The two of them sat on the bed next to each other and Niall started the film up. Harry was excited to see what all the fuss was about and the fact that he was in such close proximity to Niall didn’t hurt either.

Mid way through the film, Harry nestled in a bit closer to his blonde companion and put his head on Niall’s shoulder. _This was nice_ , Harry thought to himself. As much as this was a stupid and completely inaccurate film, this was the best experience he’d had with a human ever, and he’d had a _bunch_ of experiences…

 

 ••

 

An hour and a half later, Harry was in a state of complete disgust. “How could people believe all that? It’s ridiculous! A sea which? And spells? That’s completely preposterous!”

Niall smiled at him and shook his head, “I dunno mate, humans are pretty stupid, they’ll believe just about anything. I mean, I believed you when you said you were a merman...”

Harry scoffed, “That’s because I have a real tail and can breathe underwater!” He crossed his arms, “This film completely trashes all of merpeople!”

Frowning, Niall shifted away from where the two of them had been curled up, “Sorry that the film made you so angry, Harry. I didn’t mean to offend you or anything, just wanted to see what you’d think of it. But, to be fair, the people that made the film used an old fairy tale as a base, those were never going to be accurate. It’s a kids film, it’s just supposed to be a nice lighthearted thing.”

“Yeah, I suppose… And it’s not like humans have much information on us anyway.”

“Exactly!” Niall paused for a second and looked back at Harry, “Hey Harry…?”

“What?”

“D-do you think it’d be alright if I…” Niall sighed, _why was this so difficult?_

“Alright if you… what…”

“Could I…” Niall cleared his throat, “Could I kiss you?” Niall’s cheeks burned and he ducked his head down, quite embarrassed. He felt a light touch on his chin as it was lifted up and he was met with those big green eyes he’s come to love.

“Not if I get there first.” Niall’s face was pulled in toward Harry’s and was met with soft lips on his own. It was the nicest feeling Niall had felt in a long long time. It was perfect; Harry was perfect.

They broke apart, but stayed close together; Niall felt warm all over. “So umm… wow. Th-that was… I-- umm. Wow.”

Harry laughed, “Yeah? You’re a man of many words, huh?”

Niall shook his head and got up to go to the bathroom. Once he was alone he just stared at himself in the mirror for a while. That kiss. It sounds lame, but that small kiss was different from anything Niall had ever experienced. It was as if merpeople had some sort of magical kissing power that made your whole body feel electric. Honestly, it freaked Niall out a little. Harry seemed so much more experienced with all this ‘kissing other species bullshit’ than Niall could ever imagine. He didn’t seem to have felt the “shock of electricity” that Niall had. Maybe Niall was a shit kisser and no one had ever told him? Maybe Harry didn’t like him and he just kissed Niall out of pity? Maybe—

There was a quick knock at the door, “Hey Niall, you good in there?”

“Umm… y-yeah. I’ll be out in a minute, just um… washing my face…”

This was ridiculous right? Niall couldn’t possibly be falling for a merman, could he? Up until yesterday he didn’t even think they actually existed and today he’s _kissing_ one? Wow, he moves quickly. For a man who’d only really had one serious relationship before meeting Harry, kissing someone and falling so hard for someone on the first date… Would you call this a _date_? Oh god… Niall could feel the panic rising from his stomach. He was breathing too quickly, this was too much for him to handle right now. He just _kissed_ a _mer_ man. A _merman_! And that same merman was in his house, not only that, he was on his _bed_. Oh no. What if Harry expects certain _things_ to happen? Niall could not make those things happen. Niall was not at the point in his life to do that with other guys. He’d done it with girl, sure, but guys were new… Harry probably expected every human he met to just immediately jump his bones, _right_?! Right. Of course. He should just tell Harry to leave… he shouldn’t have brought him this far into his life at all. He was _way_ out of Niall’s league. He was in his own class of leagues… a mythical class of super sexy mythical creature _league_.

There was another knock, this one a bit more soft, “Hey Niall? Umm… d-do you need anything or…”

“No!” That came out wrong, Niall tried again, softer this time, “No… I’m fine. I’m good.” He opened the door and forced a smile. “But um, I’m pretty tired, so maybe we can call it a night? I have to get up early tomorrow and all that…”

Harry’s face fell a little, “Oh. Yeah no, sure, that makes sense. But I can stop by your boat tomorrow right? Like, you’ll be out fishing again right? I’ll be sure to be on time this time, haha.”

“Well, no…”

“What?”

“Well Greg’s gonna… Greg, my brother, he’ll be back working with me tomorrow. So unless you want another Horan to find you out…”

“No you’re right.” Harry’s face fell completely, “I guess I’ll see you then?”

Niall leaned against the doorway, “Yeah I’ll see you.”

Harry left the bedroom and went out to the deck. Niall heard some shuffling around and then a distant splash. He sighed and flopped onto bed. He could still smell Harry all around him. This was just too good to be true… He was doing the right thing. Harry deserved a better person. That didn’t stop the tears that spilled out all over Niall’s pillows though.

 

 

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading this! Means a whole lot that you did. Feel free to comment below or hit me up on tumblr at octoberseighth. You're lovely and I hope your love for mermaids and Narry will be forever growing, just like mine ;) (hopefully I'll finish a fic for once... you'll just have to stick around and see, now won't you?!)


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